One of the most artistic and provocative stories in the Gospel of John is the Martha, Lazarus and Jesus story in John 11. The story is plumbed by Rodney Reeves, in Spirituality according to John.
He weaves it through with his experience of loss in his music-loving mother’s death.
It’s a special section in the book.
Photo by Caroline Attwood on Unsplash
Notice the tensions we feel in reading John 11:1-14, tensions I’ve put in bold:
11:1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
11:4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
11:8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
11:9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11:11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
11:12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
11:14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Jesus says he’s sick but not unto death; he says Lazarus was sleeping; he then says he was dead; he says he delayed to promote faith. Which was it?
Now think of Martha’s tension points, and Reeves rightly notes (using Gail O’Day) that Martha’s words are a lament psalm themselves:
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
11:21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
11:23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
11:24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
11:27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
She knows Jesus’ delay not only permitted her brother to die but for the grave to stink (see v. 39 below).
“Jesus wept” – why weep when you delay so he can die? Fair question. Because death sucks and love hurts when death happens.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days” (v. 39).
Was Martha complaining? Was she disappointed? Does she think Jesus will raise Lazarus from among the dead? Why object to the tomb being opened? Was she protesting cleverly to Jesus about his delay?
Sometimes Jesus resuscitates, sometimes he does not; he will resurrect because he is the resurrection.
Martha is the only character in John with the perfect confession: “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world” (v. 27). Her words match the sign called Lazarus.
Martha both complains to Jesus about what has not happened and trusts in Jesus as the one who makes things happens. A perfect script from the lament psalms. Her dialogue with Jesus has these two tension points, and these are the tension points many of us face in the death of one we love: A Why? with an “I believe.”’
Facing the stink of death we, too, may complain, and lament, and be troubled, and somehow sing the songs of hope and resurrection and eternal life.
He observes at his mother’s funeral site: nobody wanted to leave and nobody wanted to stay.
That’s Martha, that’s death, that’s faith.
Thank you for taking us into John's gospel today. Back in 1973 in Vienna Austria I took a small interrnational group and myself on a long journey through John's gospel and it changed my life. Now I would like to see John's letters joined in conversation with his "gospel." They seem tacked on to the end if the Second Testament, but they must be a part of the apostle's growing understanding of our Lord, one that both nourishes and challenges us.
Scot, ever since I started reading Abraham’s Silence (thanks for the recommendation and the podcast interview) I see this type of vigorous lament in places I would not be looking for it. Certainly Martha’s willingness to NOT be silent, but speak up, brings to us a richer understanding of Jesus as the [I Am] Resurrection. I know this isn’t about Middleton’s book, but how about the parable of the fruitless fig tree in Luke 13:6-9! Who saves this tree after Jesus’ rough words about its continued existence? I could go on. But these forms of lament, frank speech to God, about what appears to be injustice on his part is a clear pattern we need to consider. As the writer of Hebrews said, we need to come boldly (frank and honest speech toward God) that we might receive mercy and find grace….” Thanks!